Crypto is fun they said.
You will make lots of cash they said.
Join the part, you are late but you´re still early.

So I did what they said and I bought some $BTC & put $200 dollar on an exchange to trade with.
The rest is history.

Several years later I am still in crypto, still holding $BTC although it´s a bit more nowadays & yes still swingtrading spot on an exchange.

In the meantime, I made "free crypto" in many places some are still there some have magically disappeared & some went bankrupt and still owe me money (looking at my Celsius app).

I got hurt a couple of times, broke-even a couple more because I just got out in time. But from all those little experiments only one is still solidly making me money.

Weird enough it is the one I was most worried about when I got in. The one I pulled my funds out early and only kept the $25 sign-on bonus.

Sign Up Bonus

Yes, I got a $25 sign-on bonus for putting down $50 in crypto. I pulled out that $50 a couple of months later. I pulled it out because I was worried about getting scammed.

Three years later I got scammed a couple of times but not by these guys. They are the cleanest, clearest deal, and made it through the bear market.

I Did Not See That Coming

The crypto-verse can be so weird, the ones you expect to rug are still there and look like they have their shit together. Okay enough suspense, I will show where all this rambling is coming from:

BAKE fka CAKE, a project that gives out high sign-up bonuses on small investments. $25 of DFI on a $50 investment, and with DFI at its lowest point that is soo much DFI. So much more than I ever got before.

In the bull market, I got like 5 or 10 DFI for a referral and know....30 freaking 4 DFI. And that is just my referral bonus the person signing up got 25 dollars which would be over 80 DFI.

I only got this for my 25-dollar DFI:

8 DFI????
For my own sign-up???
And 34 for someone else signing up at the bottom of the bear market!!!

Then I started thinking about DFI in the bull market hitting 5 Dollars again.

As I mentioned before many coins will not hit their ATH in the new bull run but just half of it would make that sign-up bonus worth $200 (80*$2.50) that is insane!

And my $10 referral would be worth like 75 dollars.... that so not realistic if I had not seen it in the previous bull run. 

Weekly reminders

Now in the bear market, I have received very few referral bonuses, I think only 2. While the amount of DFI you get signing up is so much more interesting. But well I guess we all know that the tourists only come when it´s too late to make millions.

But those referrals I got in the bull market are give me still a good feeling every Monday. Due to the BAKE referral system, I do not only get a one-time bonus but also a weekly referral bonus.

Hence I got 38 one-time bonuses, but those 7 people who still have DFI staked give me a smile every week because my referral bonus is calculated by:

• The commission Bake receives from your referral (Total Referred Commission)
• The total number of friends you've referred to Bake (Referral Badges)
• Your $10 bonus per successful referral (*T&Cs apply)

How does it work

Each category specifies how much of the Bake commission you are eligible to get.

Suppose you refer 10 friends who allocate a total of 100,000 DFI into staking. Based on 20% APY blockchain rewards and 15% commission, Bake receives 3,000 DFI commission a year (100,000 * 20% * 15%). Your referral bonus per annum is therefore 750 DFI (3,000 * 25%).

Payout

The bonus is paid out every Monday, based on your referrals' assets and referral progress badges. The bonus payouts are in the coins that your referred friend is earning.
The exception is Liquidity Mining, where they assess the total value in DFI, so the payouts will also be in DFI.

So I make $10 in DFI when someone signs up, but those 7 people that did not do it my way; meaning take the money and run trick. and have more than $50 in their account make me about 10 DFI each week.

That makes 40 DFI monthly, 480 a year. And if my math is right that should be 20% of what BAKE makes. Hence BAKE 2400 DFI and that makes me about $3 per week atm. While their total holdings are only $720 atm.

Now that does not seem like much but over a year in a bear market it makes me $150 and if we do that 10X in 2024-2025 which would get us halfway to that ATH..... that would be $1500!

⚠️This Is Crypto⚠️
Keep in mind that this is crypto and we can make assumptions but it´s still a Wild West so this is just my experience and no financial advice.

Full Disclosure

For full disclosure, I have been taking lots of profit from this investment already. After withdrawing about $700 in profits and the $50 of my initial investment I am holding 650 DFI atm.

Now do I think this is a great project, definitely not. I still have my doubts and I get that people make the reference to a pyramid scheme.

On the other hand, they have been around the blockchain. They made it through the bear market and only got better.

And in these last couple of years in which I have been up to my neck in crypto, they made the second-best return on investment. My $50 did a 20X at the bottom of this bear market with a lot of possible upside coming soon.

Guess the point I am trying to make is how I am still reaping the benefits from my 50-dollar noob investment years later.

And I hope to hear from you about similar successes still going strong from those early days. Or noob mistakes, that cost you a little or a lot.

(Not So) WISE

As we are talking about mistakes, I know I made a horrible F up investing in WISE.

I mean the project sounded wonderful, and solid with a clear bottom price due to the so-called ceiling that was generated by the ETH locked into the project (ETH that could never get out because the keys were burned or something). It was brought to my attention by someone who knew more than I did, and it was the first time I would buy into a project and not buy on an exchange.

You could choose how long you would stake it etc and I chose a year which was the shortest period. As you can see this token launched and never did anything except go down even in a bull market. Then after a year when the first people could get out, they got out and the price dropped even further. Now I am not saying WISE is a scam they are still there but just for the comparison's sake:

BAKE DFI - I Invested $50, and got a 25 dollar worth of DFI. I took my 50 dollars out after 6 weeks and ended up earning about $1000 since and I am still making money weekly in a bear market.

WISE Token - I invested $350 dollar including fees, and I was able to withdraw $340 after fees in a bull market.

Bottom Line

If you are not into ETH or BTC you never know what you are getting yourself into. Smaller projects can be very attractive, but well I don´t need to remind you to always DYOR.

I did mine, everything looked decent at first sight. Then I got a bit more intel and I saw a red flag. As it was my first red flag I played it safe and pulled out. 
But even with pulling out, this project ended up being very profitable and I am holding much more of it than I ever got when I got into it. And if there ever was a time to put in 50 dollars in crypto and get that $25 dollars bonus in DFI it is now. Let them ride, or take them out and keep the bonus, because that bonus at DFI´s current low looks so tasty.

CAKE/BAKE has been very tasty in general I guess. I took profits along the way, I am all safe and I can take any hand I am dealt but so far CAKE DFI proved to be a lot more profitable than I had ever imagined in my noob days.

Thank goodness you made it till the end Pees, Love and I am out of here!

Don´t forget to hit that like button as it´s one of the few free things left in this life.

Previous CAKE/BAKE Posts

1. My first-year CAKE DeFI Review - Did I get scammed?? Or did I get Cake? 

2. Follow Up: Was this Realistic? - Turning my $30 CAKE DEFI sign-up bonus into $50K by staking

Bake Referral Link: https://app.cakedefi.com/?ref=197670

[Source Pic](All pictures are by Meme, MyI & AI unless source is listed)